[Discuss] iPhone vs. Android - the backup problem

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

I've had another data loss thanks to iTunes, and am once again pondering
whether to ditch Apple in favor of Android.  The whole reason I switched to
iPhone less than a year ago was to get out of the sysadmin-for-phone business;
I don't really want to have to manage the thing.

But I'm finding that given the way iTunes' backup "architecture" is designed,
I have to take responsibility for personal data security on a whole new level.
 (Last night I made a backup that results only in a reboot loop when upon
restore.)

The iTunes backup model provides only for whole-volume snapshots; you don't
get to restore things piece-meal.  And it includes sys-config items that go
way beyond your personal data, in such a way that there is no assurance that a
snapshot can be restored.

My question is this:  if I stick with iPhone, is there an alternative to
iTunes for performing backups in the way that I'd want (something that looks
more like CrashPlan for Linux):  I want to keep control over the data on my
own servers, I want it to be totally set-and-forget automatic (iTunes requires
me to remember to resync, and--I don't), I want to keep the
contacts/photos/apps/configs separate so I can pick & choose, I want to be
able to easily select which day/hour I want restored, I want to have full tech
specs on the data formats.  It should run on Linux or Windows (am not a Mac
user).  In short, I want *confidence* in the tools.

Googling gives me few options for iPhone; I had a couple of them for my
Android but they were somewhat piece-meal and not as comprehensive as
something like CrashPlan.  I see something called iBye but it looks
fly-by-night.  There are two separate things I need now: (1) a full
backup/restore solution to use in the future, and (2) a recovery program to
extract my personal contacts/pics/msgs out of last night's iTunes backup onto
my Linux box.

Suffering 3 data losses in the past year due to misplaced trust in iTunes
backups, I've concluded that backup/recovery is the single most important
feature in whatever phone I'll be carrying with me a month from now.  Which
will it be?  Any thoughts on phone O/S and backup software?

-rich